Monday, 6 January 2014

Tips and tricks for unicorn princess and mermaid hair

Its Beauty Tuesday!

I've decided to start running a few regular features on the blog. I'm starting with a weekly beauty post which I'm calling "Beauty Tuesday" In a nutshell this will be the place where myself and Lilly from the Vintage Pamperbox share our know how with you on all aspects of hair and make up magic. We are really keen to take requests so are kicking off with something Lilly gets asked certainly every day "how do you get your hair to look so glossy when its blue and how do you maintain the colour"

*disclaimer please if you have never colour or bleached your hair before seek professional advice.This is what works for Lilly and she home colours her hair at her own risk. Its always better to get the pros to colour your hair but if you are a confident home dyer this tutorial may be useful.

Take it away Lilly

True Blue baby I love you

Over the years I’ve always wanted to have brightly coloured hair but having very long black hair I was afraid and my hair is my protection. It’s what I hide behind, sort of my armour from the world.

So the past few years I settled with a coloured streak at the front of my hair

The Changing hair of Lily Von Pink

So after having my daughter last year I bit the bullet and decided I wanted blue unicorn princess hair. I decided,Its fine, hair grows back.

I’ve bleached my front streak for years but the thought of doing my entire head filled with fear, so I visited a local hair salon for help.

We quickly discovered that because I had used black dyes (to cover the grey) on my hair it was going to be a slow process as the test piece at the back of my neck snapped off very short.

My hair was green for a while

So for five months I went and had my hair bleach bathed and coloured I have been many shades of green. yes that's right five months. Depending on how much previous dye you have on your hair and if you want to maintain a bright colour on long hair it can take a while. I wore a lot of headscarfs around this time.

The 4 stages of stripping the colour

I now just maintain my hair myself and employ a few tricks along the way which I'm happy to share.

Colours and Dyes

When it comes to colour it’s all about trial and error sometime my hair is more of a greenie blue other time its purpler, vibrant colours are usually semi permanent dyes which you can be mixed with each other to create different shades.

The brands I use or have used are

Crazy colour – I find this brand terrible for blue but their pink shades are really good so sometimes it depends on the colour but I do use it for maintenance which ill share more about later

The brand I use mainly is directions which I find has a good consistency to work with. It's not too watery and spreads well. Their colours are strong and last better than the other dyes I’ve tried.

Directions-its the best baby

My routine

Bluebird

When my hair is freshly dyed I have a Pattern I follow. I’m not into the washed out look, I like my colour to be a strong vibrant consistent blue so my hair is a lot of work but I love it.

Tip #1-How much to wash

Washing my hair from week 1 to 5 – I wash my hair 3 to 4 times a week or less depending on if it needs it. If your hairs OK leave it. The more you wash it the quicker it produces it's natural oils and YES I WASH MY HAIR IN COLD WATER its horrible but it means my colour stays bright. Cold water strips away less of the dye.

Tip #2 which shampoo

I use a sulphur free shampoo (osmo colour save 1000ml lasts a good 4 months) mixed with crazy colour (3 bottles) that's right I put Crazy colour in my shampoo.

The shampoo reduces colour fade because it reduces the amount of colour that’s striped out by washing and adding the dye means you’re always adding a bit when you wash it.

Osmo Shampoo

Tip # 3 Conditioning

Once a week I use a conditioning hair mask that also contains crazy colour too. my hair is bleached so it needs to be taken care of I use Aussies 3 minute miracle.

Give your scalp some love

If I find at any point my scalp is dry or itchy from the bleaching I use a white vinegar mix with warm water to rinse my hair with. It balances the ph levels of my scalp and relives the itching plus it removes excess oil from my hair

The week before my roots need doing – I treat my scalp. I wash my hair with normal shampoo and in warm water I don’t worry about colour fade as I will be re-colouring it anyway

I try not to wash my hair at least the day before bleaching as your natural oils protect the skin from the bleach

I usually do my roots every 5-6 weeks luckily the blue with black roots doesn’t look too bad so I try and leave it as long as I can before it drives me nuts

Dyeing with directions

Once I’ve bleached my roots I wash my hair and make sure its oil and product free ready for the colour.

Directions instructions say to apply to freshly washed towel dry hair but I don’t do this as I never get a bold enough colour. I blow dry my hair and then add my colour on dry hair. Yes I use more product but I get a rich deep colour and I only have to do this when I do my roots. I only do my hair if I have loads of time I’m not into rushing.

Once the dyes applied all over I wrap it in clingfilm and a towel and leave it in overnight, because the dye is a conditioner based vegetable dye its non damaging to your hair so I leave it as long as possible.

Rinse the colour out and you are done for another 5 to 6 weeks or depending on your hair and colour. Floss and pastel colours don’t last as long but if you keep it topped up you may get longer from it.

Recolouring

The fake bits

Colour match those clip ins

If you want to wear extensions it can be a pain matching the colour. I buy blonde human hair and colour it when I do my hair. If you’re really struggling to match the colour of your hair and extensions I've found that by dying each row a slightly different shade of blue they blend a lot better.

Good Luck xx sirens. If you would like us to do a tutorial on any aspect of hair, make up or beauty just leave a comment or email us. If we know how to do it we are happy to share.

Capturing the Curve Workshops

In other body confidence news I'm planning two plus size pin up workshops this year, one in Manchester and one in London. A day to revel in your curvy beauty, be made over myself and Lilly Von Pink and have your very own photoshoot in a safe empowering environment-All the details can be found here

Limited Edition Killer Curves Tee Shirts (including the brand new Curverella and the zombies design) Now On Sale

My brand new Killer Curve tee Shirts cost £13 and are available to buy from here having curves never looked so good!

All content (text, photos and other) are the property of Betty Pamper (aka Perelandra Beedles) unless otherwise stated. Please refrain from copying any material without recognition of the author and a link to the source on this blog

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All content (text, photos and other) are the property of Betty Pamper (aka Perelandra Beedles) unless otherwise stated. Please refrain from copying any material without recognition of the author and a link to the source on this blog